Tilera, Quanta roll low power server

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Multicore processor designer Tilera Corp. announced it plans to ship a 200-core device in 2013 and demonstrated a 512-core server made by partner Quanta Computer Inc. using Tilera's current 64-core chip. An SGI executive said it plans to field systems using Tilera's processors.

The S2Q server uses eight Tilera TilePro64 processors and up to 16 ports each of Gigabit and 10 Gbit Ethernet in four modules that fit into a 2U chassis. The company claims 12 of the servers will consume 5 kilowatts and deliver the performance of 100 dual-socket Intel Xeon servers that would consume 25 KW.

The SQ2 supports up to 64 DIMM slots and 24 2.5-inch SAS, serial ATA or solid state hard drives. It runs SMP Linux and will be generally available before the end of the year.

The system targets cloud computing workloads and was designed in collaboration with data center providers. “This is a technological breakthrough providing the high performance required in a fraction of the space and power budget.” said Mike Yang, vice president of the cloud computing business unit at Quanta, one of Taiwan's large ODMs and an investor in Tilera.

“There are new needs of power efficiency and density that are not met by the x86 technology," said Omid Tahernia, chief executive of Tilera, speaking in a press statement.

Tilera also announced it is working on a 200-core processor code-named Stratton and made in a 28nm process. Previously, the company announced plans for a 100-core processor as part of its Gx family that will ship in 2011 and be made in 40nm technology.

"We are working with Tilera to bring this compelling technology to our customers across HPC, cloud, and government market segments,” said Mark J. Barrenechea, chief executive of computer maker SGI, also in a press statement. “Providing multiples of performance density and power efficiency in a standard environment is a significant breakthrough that will take cloud computing to the next level,” he added.

A number of universities are looking at this problem, here's an article from last week's Crain's Chicago Business profiling Professor Wen-mei Hwu at UIUC who is leading one such effort ...
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130309/ISSUE01/303099980/geek-god-how-a-u-of-i-tech-prof-is-reinventing-mega-computing

I wonder what is their progress with those chips today. Have they delivered in terms of power efficiency and performance? Have they set a new standard in which other chip manufacturers have to follow?
Paul - http://www.connetu.com